sad single verse.
O'er the whole wide earth a wanderer--chance-alighting in some place,
Dwells that woful man, unworthy,--ever wakeful with his grief.
Him that noble lady following--in the forest lone and dread,
Lives, of that bad man forsaken--hard it is to say, she lives!
Lone, and young, the ways unknowing--undeserving of such fate,
Pines she there with thirst and hunger--hard it is to say, she lives.
In that vast and awful forest--haunted by fierce beasts of prey,
By her lord she roams forsaken--hapless, by that luckless lord."
Thus remembering Damayanti--did Nishadha's king unknown,
Long within that dwelling sojourn--in the palace of the king.

BOOK XVI.

Nala thus bereft of kingdom--with his wife to slavery sunk,
Forth king Bhima sent the Brahmins--Nala through the world to seek.
Thus the royal Bhima charged them--with abundant wealth supplied:--
"Go ye now and seek king Nala--Damayanti seek, my child:
And, achieved this weighty business--found Nishadha's royal lord,
Whosoe'er shall hither bring them--shall a thousand kine receive;
And a royal grant for maintenance[109]--of a village like a town.
If nor hither Damayanti--nor king Nala may be brought,
Know we where they are, rich guerdon--still we give, ten hundred kine."
Thus addressed, the joyful Brahmins--went to every clime of earth,
Through the cities, through the kingdoms--seeking Nala and his queen:
Nala, or king Bhima's daughter--in no place might they behold.
Then a Brahmin, named Sudeva--came to pleasant Chedi-pur;
There within the kingly palace--he Vidarbha's daughter saw,
Standing with the fair Sunanda--on a royal holiday.[110]
With her beauty once so peerless--worthy now of little praise,
Like the sun-light feebly shining--through the dimness of a cloud.
Gazing on the large-eyed princess--dull in look, and wasted still,
Lo, he thought, king Bhima's daughter--pondering thus within his mind.--

SUDEVA _spake_.

"Even as once I wont to see her--such is yonder woman's form,
I my work have done, beholding--like the goddess world-adored,
Like the full moon, darkly beauteous--with her fair and swelling breasts,
Her, the queen, that with her brightness--makes each clime devoid of gloom,
With her lotus eyes expanding--like Manmatha's queen divine;[111]
Like the moonlight in its fulness--the desire of all th